The Rise of Nintendo 64

For many years Nintendo has arguably been the top company to collect in the industry and for good reason. Between all of the high profile video game franchises like Mario, Zelda & Metroid amongst others, the video games tend to hold value the longest. When most people decide to get into video game collecting they tend to start with their favorite system or by default it seems to be Nintendo NES followed by Super Nintendo. Because of the popularity of those two consoles the third and final cartridge based Nintendo system has been somewhat cheap and easier to collect, but that seems to be changing.

The Nintendo 64 was released in North America September of 1996 with your choice of two games Pilotwings 64 and one of the greatest games of all-time Super Mario 64. Despite only having two launch titles the Nintendo 64 was one of the hottest systems at its launch. During that Christmas season you could sell a system with Mario 64 for over $1,000, it was truly remarkable. With the success and memorable launch of the system it has become one of the best Nintendo consoles of all-time. Nintendo 64 was in competition with the Sony PlayStation 1 and the Sega Dreamcast. The N64 was marketed towards teenagers and was very successful against the new Sony PlayStation keeping close in popularity and sales. Once the Sega Dreamcast decided to step away from the current “console war” things looked up for Nintendo until the Launch of the Sony PlayStation 2 in 2000. Since then Nintendo has been trying new and innovative ways to keep with Sony starting with the smaller Gamecube with mini-discs to the Wii with motion control.

The nostalgia factor of the cartridge game is a big deal for collectors and gamers alike. The label designs, box art, durability, and memories of blowing into the bottoms to make them work strikes a cord with all players. Most collectors and gamers want to play the games they had as a child to relive those memories, and the trend continues with the Nintendo 64. For the past 10 years the prices have consistently increased in value with some games like Conker’s Bad Fur Day eclipsing the $100.00 mark. Some of the more popular games for the system like Super Mario 64, Goldeneye, Super Smash Bros., Mario Party, Mario Kart 64 & Paper Mario have helped increase the overall value and conductibility of the console.

We have recently acquired a large amount of boxed Nintendo 64 games and an atomic orange system which is extremely hard to find. Most of these boxed games are in great condition and some of them are even sealed! We have sent a batch of the new sealed games to VGA (Video Game Authority) to get custom cased and graded as well as sent over some to our retail store. As you can see in the picture there are some really good titles in the lot like Doom 64 & Superman 64. Right now is the time to start collecting Nintendo 64 because the market is still reasonable and most of the popular games are obtainable.  Play On!